Turnovers doom Cardinals in loss to Forest Area

October 14, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — Forest Area took one step closer to its first-ever Ski Valley Conference football title, taking advantage of turnovers and using big plays to its advantage in a 30-22 win against Johannesburg-Lewiston Friday.

Thanks to four first-half J-L turnovers, the visiting Warriors (6-1) jumped out to a 27-8 lead at halftime, before the hard-charging Cardinals played a strong second-half to eventually cut the lead to as few as five points.

“We played really well in the second half,” said J-L coach Fred Davis. “We were dominating both lines of scrimmage. But we did not play a very good first half. It is really hard to win when you give away points like that. They have a lot of speed, but we helped them out a lot.”

Now, J-L (4-3) needs victories the next two weeks at Atlanta and St. Mary in order to qualify for their first playoff appearance since 2005.

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The Warriors scored on a pair of long runs by Tyler Denike in the first quarter (43 yards, 21 yards), before Justin Gordon took over in the second quarter, with a 58-yard touchdown run and a 70-yard kickoff return.

Sandwiched in between was a long Cardinal drive, highlighted by senior Ty Knapp’s two-yard quarterback sneak. Junior Gavin Koronka caught a pass from Knapp for the conversion.

J-L then scored a pair of touchdowns early in the fourth quarter to make things interesting. The first came from a 10-yard pass by Knapp to senior Alex Vogt, with senior Curtis VanDoren running in the two-point conversion. The second came on another two-yard quarterback sneak by Knapp. With 3:48 remaining in the game, the Cardinals found themselves down just 27-22.

“One thing that’s great about football is that it teaches you not to give up in life,” Davis said. “Our kids battled back and showed a lot of effort. It could have been a 50-8 game or something, but we made it pretty close.”

Forest Area didn’t sweat it, and Denike’s 35-yard field goal put the Warriors up 30-22 with two minutes to go.

For the game, Vogt finished with 89 rushing yards and Knapp 75 yards for the Cardinals. VanDoren snagged seven passes for 86 yards.

Defensively, Ben Bush continued to lead the way with 12 tackles, including two for loss. VanDoren added nine tackles, while Vogt, Travis Roberts and Adam Tack added eight apiece. Koronka had a fumble recovery.

Denike and Gordon each rushed for more than 100 yards for the Warriors, who can seal the conference championship this week against Mancelona.